Effects of Ethnic Identity and Discrimination on Self-Esteem
Sydnee Garcia
University of Texas at San Antonio Abstract
Ties to ethnic identities contribute to how one shapes one’s self view; when faced with discrimination toward that ethnic identity, one risks that self-view being altered. This study explores the relationship between ethnic identity, discrimination, and self-esteem in order to expand the knowledge surrounding the Social Identity Theory. Researchers predict that participants who read about high discrimination showed low levels of self-esteem in comparison to participants who read about low discrimination and participants in the control group. Researchers predict that participants with high ethnic identity showed high levels self-esteem in comparison to participants with low ethnic identity. Researchers predict that participants with low ethnic identity and who read a passage embedded with high discrimination would show the lowest levels of self-esteem overall. After completing the Ethnic Identity Scale (Umaña-Taylor, Yazedjian, & Bámaca-Gómez, 2004) provided, 600 participants will be randomly assigned to one of three conditions with varying levels of discrimination embedded in a passage. Participants who have high levels of ethnic identity (M = 24.00, SD = .12) will show higher self-esteem than people who have low levels of ethnic identity (M = 23.66, SD = .10). Participants who read about high levels of discrimination (M = 13.00, SD = .05) will show lower self-esteem than participants who read about low levels of discrimination (M = 24.00, SD = .08), or no level of discrimination (M = 34.50, SD = 1.02). Participants who have a high level of ethnic identity that read about a high level of discrimination will have the lowest self-esteem (M = 12, SD = 0.14). This study faces history confounds and operational confounds, and can be improved with the use of a confederate and pre-and-post repeated measured. Effects of Ethnic Identity and Discrimination on Self-Esteem
Social psychology offers insight into how humans view themselves as individuals. Social psychology, put simply, involves how humans’ interactions with others and how these interactions affect humans internally: this effect is not only connected to the explicit actions of others, but is often derived from the perceived motivation or intention behind their action (social psychology, n.d.). Through research in social psychology, researchers aim to discover specific factors that are connected to humans’ perceptions of self as one compares oneself to society.
Ethnic identity is a sub-category that falls within social identities and helps individuals define themselves within society (Phinney, 1996; Umaña-Taylor, Schwartz, Luyckx, & Vignoles, 2011). In more recent years, researchers have begun to look at ethnic identity on a deeper level, looking into not only identification with an ethnicity, but also how closely one identifies with their particular ethnic group and the impact that has on their views of themselves in society (Phinney, 1996; Phinney, 1989; Phinney, 1991). Ties with ethnic identity make it more likely for one to experience ethnic discrimination, which has been shown to have negative effects on self-esteem (Lee, 2003; Fisher, Wallace, & Fenton, 2000).
Discrimination faced by those with strong ethnic identities has led to studies on coping mechanisms and the tie between ethnic identity and discrimination, but researchers have not yet gained enough supportive evidence behind direct relationships between discrimination and self-esteem (Tynes, Umaña-Taylor, Rose, Lin, & Anderson, 2012). It has been shown that those with high ethnic identity are more likely to hold true to their strength in group association and, therefore, hold esteem at a higher level in the face of discrimination (Phinney, 2003; Gaylord-Harden, Ragsdale, Mandara, Richards, & Petersen, 2006).
Research surrounding self-esteem supports that self-esteem is a reproducible and reliable measure of one’s self-system and self-concept that helps shape humans’ thoughts and actions (Hughes, Witherspoon, Rivas-Drake, & West-Bey, 2009; Rosenberg, 1986). There has been contradicting research showing that ties to ethnic identity can either positive affect an individual or negative affect the individual, in some research depending on what ethnic group that particular individual aligns with (Phinney, 1992; Phinney, Cantu, & Kurtz, 1997; Umaña-Taylor, et al., 2002; Hughes, et al., 2009).
This proposed study is focused on exploring the interaction between ethnic identity and discrimination on self-esteem. Researchers are interested in using this approach to elaborate on the Social Identity Theory, and analyze how group membership and discrimination affect self-esteem (Rubin & Hewstone, 1998). While Social Identity Theory’s Self-Esteem hypothesis focuses on discrimination from the side of the discriminator, but there is limited research analyzing effects of discrimination on those who are discriminated against from an approach based in the Social Identity Theory (Rubin & Hewstone, 1998). The pool of research shows that there is a positive relationship between discrimination and self-esteem on behalf of the discriminator (Rubin & Hewstone, 1998), but there is not extensive research on the connection between ethnic identity, discrimination, and self-esteem.
This study aims to explore the interaction between ethnic identity and discrimination on self-esteem. Previous studies have found that there is a relationship between ethnic identity and self-esteem, finding that there is a positive relationship between ethnic identity and self-esteem (Phinney, 1992; Umaña-Taylor, Diversi, & Fine, 2002) meaning that as ethnic identity increased, self-esteem increased. Studies have also shown a negative relationship between discrimination and self-esteem (Harris‐Britt, Valrie, Kurtz‐Costes, & Rowley, 2007) meaning that as discrimination increases, self-esteem responses decrease and as discrimination decreases, self-esteem responses increase. There has been a gap in the research when it comes to the interaction between ethnic identity and discrimination on self-esteem: this research aims to expand the pool of knowledge surrounding this approach to self-esteem.
In this study, ethnic identity is defined as how closely participants understand and identify with their particular ethnic group (Phinney, 1996) and is measured through the (Umaña-Taylor, Yazedjian, & Bámaca-Gómez, 2004) Ethnic Identity Scale (See Appendix A) to be able to categorize participants as either having low strength of ethnic identity or high strength of ethnic identity. Ethnic discrimination is defined as belittling a participant based on their ethnicity (Tynes, et al., 2012) and will be measured on three levels; control, low discrimination, and high discrimination. Levels of discrimination will be based on the level of discrimination written within the substance in the readings of each randomly assigned condition. Self-esteem is defined as how an individual views their worth (Self-Esteem, 2011) and will be measured using the highly reputable (Rosenberg, 1965) Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (See Appendix B) in order to categorize participants as having either low self-esteem or high self-esteem.
Participants who read about high discrimination will show low levels of self-esteem in comparison to participants who read about low discrimination and participants in the control group (Harris‐Britt, et al., 2007). Participants with high ethnic identity will show high levels self-esteem in comparison to participants with low ethnic identity (Phinney, 1992; Phinney, Cantu, & Kurtz, 1997; Umaña-Taylor, et al., 2002). Participants with low ethnic identity and high discrimination will show the lowest levels of self-esteem overall. Methods
Participants
The study will consist of 600 participants (300 male, 300 female). The mean age will be 21. 52% will be African American, non-multiethnic and 48% will be Caucasian, non-multiethnic. This study aims to reflect the ethnic identities and self-esteem of African American and Caucasian populations, ages 18-24 only (M= 21.00, SD= .19). Participants with multiple ethnicities will be excluded from the study as multiple ethnicities can sway the results. Participants outside of the ages of 18-24 will be excluded since the study aims to focus on ethnic identities and self-esteem in college-aged students. The participants will be recruited through flyers in public areas on the campus of the University of Texas at San Antonio and in public areas in San Antonio including local bus stops, building pinboards, and popular eating areas such as the Roadrunner Cafe and Library food court. Participants will be compensated with $15.00 H-E-B Gift Cards.